Will they get their land back?

In 2004, the Federal Government dispossessed the Abesan Town allotees of their land despite satisfying all requirements. In 2007, the government realised its mistake and promised to return the land to them. Six years after, the allottees are still waiting on the government, writes SEYI ODEWALE

Pa Olusegun Akinola, a pensioner, is distressed. Instead of enjoying his 20-year-old retirement, he is faced with the battle of his life. Before retiring in 1993, Akinola keyed into a Federal Government housing scheme, which began in 1987. Thirteen years after he was allocated the land, the Federal Government took it from him.

“Since then, I have been running from pillar to post because of this land, which was duly allocated to me after I had paid the necessary money and got all the papers that entitled me to the land. Thank God, I have another place to rest my head. You could imagine what would have happened to me,” he lamented.

Tagged Aboru Federal Housing Scheme, which later became Abesan Town Project, Akinola put all he had into the project. It was then known as Site and Services Scheme. But his hopes were dashed. In 2004, bulldozers demolished everything he had on the land.

Akinola is not alone, his compatriot and long time friend, Pa Olasunkanmi Adepoju, suffered a similar fate. His building was also demolished. So was that of Uche Obirai, whose in-laws are calling for his head because they think he ‘duped’ them; the money he spent on the land was said to be his in-laws. They have taken him to court.

There are many others with the same sour tales. About 636 plots allocated to them were seized in 2004 by the then Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mrs Mobolaji Osomo.

According to Akinola, the government provided the land in the Site and Services Scheme, which was bought by the allottees to build specified structures on. Government was to provide road network, maintenance of the estate and other sundry things.

“It was originally meant to be like others before it where the structures were built by the government and later sold to the beneficiaries. But paucity of funds, according to the government, brought about the site and services scheme where we bought the land from the government and built to its specification. The scheme is in three categories: low, medium and high density,” he said.

But Mrs Osomo vide a ‘stop construction order,’ issued on her behalf to the allottees threw a spanner into the scheme. The order read in part: “The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. A. M. Osomo is happy to inform you that the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has graciously approved the construction of the Abesan New Town under the 1976 Land acquisition act No 13 Vol. 63 of March 11. The construction will commence on or before the end of August 2004 by the grace of God. The estimated completion time and sale of completed units is 18 months. For planning and documentation purposes, you are requested to submit the following documents to establish your stake and your enabling authority: Letter of allocation; certificate of occupancy(C of O); approved building plan and any other relevant documents.”

A few months later, the allottees were declared illegal occupants through a letter dated December 9, 2004. Consequently, their structures were demolished and their ownership of the land put in abeyance. For almost 10 years their fate has continued to hang in the balance. Uncertainty became their lot. They became victims of what some of them termed ‘executive lawlessness’; lands duly allocated to them were taken away from them in one fell swoop with an executive fiat.

A few among them had died, while others are still hopeful that their case is not lost. What seemed a ray of light appeared at the end of the tunnel for them on October 17, 2007, when a letter signed by a Deputy Director (Land Administration), G.T.N. Tabansi, addressed to the chairman of the allottees, informed them that the government has “approved that the affected people (as contained in our records) should repossess their plots”.

The letter went further: “In order to enhance smooth possession, the Cadastral Survey Unit has been directed to assist in relocating or re-establishing the beacons after sighting the original documents earlier given to you. I am therefore directed to request from you a comprehensive list of the affected people with the addresses of such properties.” However, since then nothing has been forthcoming on the part of the ministry.

Recounting their woes, Pa Akinola, who is the Vice Chairman of the allottees, said their plights were compounded with the encroachment of the land by the Omo Onile, who sold every piece of the land shortly after the demolition exercise of 2004 was carried out.

“As you know, nature abhors vacuum, the Omo Onile of the area encroached massively into the land and sold everything. Prior to this, there was a civil suit challenging the Federal Government at the Federal High Court, Lagos, filled by the Omo Onile over the ownership of the land. The Omo Onile won the case.This emboldened them to take possession of the land and sell it. But the government later challenged it at the Court of Appeal and the appellate court set aside the ruling of the lower court and said the land belonged to the government, having acquired it and paid full compensation to the Omo Onile,” Pa Akinola said.

In a letter by the allottees’ solicitors, Kunle Fadipe& Co. to the Minister of Works, Housing and Development, Ms Ammal Pepple, dated March 3, this year, the minister was reminded of the pending promise to reinstate the allottees to their land. Fadipe quoted the October 17, 2007 letter signed on behalf of the minister by one Tabansi, a deputy director in the ministry, assuring the allottees of the ministry’s resolve to reinstate them back to their land. He said the obvious reason for the long delay was the pending law suit at the Court of Appeal, which was recently decided in favour of the Federal Government in a Suit No. CA/L/563/08. “The pendency of the suit in court probably made it impossible for the Federal Government to restore our clients back to the land. Now that the major obstacle has been removed, it is our clients’ prayer that you would kindly see the need to do the needful at this time,” Fadipe wrote.

However, attempts to reinstate them, unfortunately, did not go far. The reason for this has remained unclear. In February 2008, one Olakunde A. D. on behalf of the Federal Controller, Urban and Regional Development Department of the ministry, Abesan Zonal Office, wrote a letter inviting them to a meeting to discuss strategies and logistics, but it yielded no meaningful results. “This is why we are appealing to the ministry to do the needful and restore our land to us,” Akinola said.

Abesan Zonal Office Director, Mr Tayo Adeoya, in a telephone chat with The Nation declined to comment on the matter. He said he was barred as a civil servant to talk to press. “I cannot talk to you on that matter. Please see the controller who will give you an update on that matter. You know I am a civil servant,” he said.

Earlier attempts to see the Controller at the ministry’s Moloney annex office, Onikan, Lagos were unsuccessful as his aides said he was not available. Even when The Nation reporter went with the allottees who requested to meet him last month, he was said to be unavailable.

Investigations, however, showed that the ministry was willing to get the issue done with, but what is delaying the process is the political will to do it. “The issue has been the albatross of the government and it will want to save its face by reinstating the allottees to their land. What may, however, delay this process is the illegal occupation of the land by those who bought the land from the Omo Onile,” said a source who does not want his name in print.

The source also said: “This should not be a problem for the government to tackle. What should be done is that since an appeal court judgment has declared government as the bona fide owner of the land, what is left for the government is to take possession and reinstate the original allottees.”

An unconfirmed source also revealed that the land appeared to be enmeshed in a web of litigation as one of those that bought the property from the Omo Onile has been dragged to court by them (Omo Onile) for failing to pay their balance.

Whatever might have been the case, the allottees believe that the wrong done them can still be redress. “Some of us have died, some are dying, some do not have the means to embark on such projects again and we are not growing younger. At least, I can count on my finger tips about four of our members who have died. They died frustrated by an anti-people decision and the only thing to make them happy in their grave and those of us alive is to restore the land to us. Our hope lies in a meeting we have scheduled with the Minister and the Director of Land Administration on the 25th of this month in Abuja. We hope the meeting will yield positive results and put our minds at rest,” Akinola said, showing copies of the letters sent to the two principal officers of the ministry.